Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for producing a carrier for developing an electrostatic latent image and a method for producing a two-component developer. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method for producing a carrier that is for developing an electrostatic latent image and has an improved level of charge amount, durability, and other properties.
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, toner particles have been required to have improved melt fixability onto recording media during fixation, to have improved fixability at low temperature for the purpose of achieving energy savings, and to have reduced sizes for the purpose of achieving high image quality. Low-temperature fixing toner includes a binder resin with a low glass transition temperature or a crystalline resin, which enables low-temperature fixation.
Unfortunately, there is a problem in that an external additive can be easily fixed and buried in a resin with a low glass transition temperature, which can decrease chargeability, and a crystalline resin resists holding generated charges due to its low-resistance properties, which can reduce charge amount. On the other hand, small size toner particles have the problem of reduced chargeability per particle because they have reduced fluidity and reduced frictionally-chargeable surface area per particle due to their small size.
Thus, for example, there is disclosed the use of a resin with high chargeability as a carrier coating resin to suppress the reduction in charge amount (see, for example, JP 2012-194230 A).
However, the use of a resin with high chargeability can cause large differences in charging in a low-temperature, low-humidity environment or cause large environmentally-induced differences in charge amount, and there is still a need for further improvement in this regard.